Remembering people we lost in 2017

We lost rock'n'roll icons, teen heartthrobs, award-winning athletes and people who changed the world in 2017.

Author:
David Colton, Special to USA TODAY

Published:
10:16 AM CST January 1, 2018

Updated:
10:16 AM CST January 1, 2018

Blasting America's parents with the teen-shaking shout, “Go Johnny go!” Chuck Berry, dead at 90, taught the world to rock. It took the sly blueberry thrills of Fats Domino, gone at 89, to add the roll.

The absurdist red smoking jacket of Hugh Hefner, 91 ushered in a sexual revolution of pouty Playmates and upscale urges. It was Mary Tyler Moore, 80, who tore up that centerfold, proving that even sexier could be a spunky, single career woman on TV.

Apollo astronaut Gene Cernan, 82, was the last human to walk on the moon in 1972. Only six moonwalkers remain, but all left footprints, untouched in the lunar dust nearly a half-century later.

We lost teen heartthrobs like David Cassidy, 67, and Erin Moran, 56. And we lost the genial Gomer Pyle wisdom of Jim Nabors, 87, who soothed his fans with country humor, a gospel-perfect voice and visions of a homogeneous time gone by.

Everyone, from the most high-flying to the earthbound among us, leaves a mark, an echo, an imprint on those around them and those to come. And sometimes those influencers, whether superstar athlete, embattled world leader or a family's favorite relative, don't realize the impact they're having, the inspirations, learnings or complications they leave behind.

We lost gossip columnist Liz Smith, 94, whose coverage of a brash Manhattan real estate mogul helped invent Donald Trump. And activist Dick Gregory, 84, the groundbreaking comedian who helped break the color barrier on television and seemed to be on a perpetual hunger strike against injustice for the rest of his career

PHOTOS: People we lost in 2017

David Cassidy, American pop singer and star of the television programme 'The Partridge Family', died at age 67 on Nov. 21, 2017. In this photo, he walks down a road in Paris in 1974 (Photo: Ellidge/Daily Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images).

Jim Nabors, who created one of TV's beloved comedic characters, Gomer Pyle, died at the age of 87 on Nov. 30, 2017 (Photo: Frank Micelotta/Getty Images).

Legendary American jazz pianist and singer Fats Domino (Antoine Domino) died at 89 on Oct. 24, 2017. He shaped rock and roll with songs like Blueberry Hill, The Fat Man, Ain't That a Shame and I'm Walkin' (Photo: Express Newspapers/Getty Images).

Hugh Hefner, the ultimate playboy and CEO of Playboy Enterprises, was 91 when he died at his home on Sept. 27, 2017. He published the first Playboy magazine in 1953 (Photo: HECTOR MATA/AFP/Getty Images).

Della Reese first enjoyed a career as a jazz and pop singer and later as a TV star on CBS' 'Touched by an Angel.' She died at age 86 on Nov. 19, 2017 (Photo: Amanda Edwards/Getty Images).

Dick Gregory, the comedian and activist who broke racial barriers in the 1960's and used his humor to spread messages of social justice and nutritional health, died at age 84 on Aug. 19, 2017 (Photo: Timothy Hiatt/Getty Images).

Mary Tyler Moore, one of the most beloved television actresses of the 20th century, died on Jan. 25, 2017 at the age of 80. She was most known for her role as a housewife on 'The Dick Van Dyke Show' (Photo: Kevin Winter/Getty Images).

Rock 'n' roll pioneer Chuck Berry died at the age of 90 on March 18, 2017. From the time Berry first hit the scene with Maybellene in 1955, he defined the sound, the swagger, the style of a rock and roll star (Photo: Francois Durand/Getty Images).

Comedian Don Rickles, known as the master of the put-down in his more than 60-year-long career, died at age 90 on April 6 (Photo: Mark Mainz/Getty Images for AFI).

Voice actress June Foray, the voice of Cindy Lou Who and Rocky the Flying Squirrel, died on July 26, 2017 at the age of 99 (Photo: Amanda Edwards/Getty Images for UCLA).

Allman Brothers singer and Southern rock icon Gregg Allman died at 69 years old on May 27, 2017 (Photo: Andrew H. Walker/Getty Images).

Jerry Lewis, the comedian and director whose fundraising telethons became as famous as his movies, died at age 91 on Aug. 20, 2017. (Photo: Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images)

Dick Enberg waves to the crowd during a ceremony held before a baseball game between the San Diego Padres and the Los Angeles Dodgers at PETCO Park on September 29, 2016 in San Diego, California.

Musician and rock and roll legend Tom Petty died on Oct. 2, 2017 at the age of 66 (Photo: Samir Hussein/Getty Images).

Comedian Charlie Murphy died of leukemia on April 12, 2017. He was the older brother of Eddie Murphy (Photo: HECTOR MATA/AFP/Getty Images).

Bill Paxton, an American actor and director known for his roles in 'Titanic' and TV's 'Training Day,' died at age 61 on Feb. 25, 2017 (Photo: Rachel Murray/Getty Images for Activision).

Actor Adam West, who originated the role of Batman through the 1960s TV series, died at age 88 on June 9, 2017 (Photo: Evening Standard/Getty Images).

NASA astronaut Dick Gordon (middle) died at age 88 on Nov. 6, 2017. He was the command module pilot of Apollo 12, the second lunar landing mission. This photo was taken in 1969. (Photo: NASA/AFP/Getty Images)

British actor Roger Moore, who played James Bond in seven films, died at 89 on May 23, 2017 (Photo: Peter Ruck/BIPs/Getty Images).

Former chairman and CEO of the Fox News Network Roger Ailes died at age 77 on May 18, 2017 (Photo: Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images).

Former 'Let's Make a Deal' gameshow host Monty Hall died of heart failure at 96 years old on Sept. 30, 2017 (Photo: Kevin Winter/ImageDirect).

Singer Chester Bennington, best known as the lead singer of rock band Linkin Park, died of suicide at age 41 on July 20, 2017 (Photo: Christopher Polk/Getty Images).

13th March 1974: American author William Peter Blatty, whose novel 'The Exorcist' was made into a highly successful film and wrote and directed 'The Ninth Configuration' died on Jan. 12, 2017 at 89 (Photo: Larry Ellis/Express/Getty Images).

Jonathan Demme, the versatile Oscar-winning filmmaker who worked with everyone from David Byrne and Justin Timberlake to Hannibal Lecter, died at age 73 on April 27, 2017 (Photo: Ernesto Ruscio/Getty Images).

Keely Smith, a Las Vegas legend and one of most popular singers in the era of Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack, died on Dec. 16, 2017 at 89 (Photo: Hulton Archive/Getty Images).

Country music star Mel Tillis died on Nov. 19, 2017 at the age of 85. Over the course of his six-decade career, he penned many now-classic country songs like 'Detroit City' (Photo: Frederick Breedon/Getty Images for ACM).

Columnist Liz Smith died on Nov. 12, 2017 at the age of 94. For more than a quarter-century, her column was one of the most widely read in the world (Photo: Michael Loccisano/Getty Images for HBO).

Kim Jong-Hyun, a 27-year-old lead singer of the massively popular K-pop boyband SHINee, died on Dec. 19, 2017 (Photo: CHOI HYUK/AFP/Getty Images).

John Warren Geils Jr., the artist known professionally as J. Geils who gave his name to the 1980s rock group he founded, The J. Geils Band, died on April 11, 2017 at 71 years old (Photo: Carl Lender/Wikipedia).

Clyde Stubblefield, a drummer for James Brown who created one of the most widely sampled drum breaks ever, died on Feb. 18, 2017. He was 73 (Photo: Phillip Faraone/Getty Images for Guitar Center).

Norma McCorvey, the plaintiff in the US Supreme Court Roe v. Wade ruling on abortion, died on Feb. 18, 2017 at the age of 69. This photo was taken in 1998 (Photo: CHRIS KLEPONIS/AFP/Getty Images).

Derek Walcott, a Nobel-prize winning poet known for capturing the essence of his native Caribbean who became the region's most internationally famous writer, died on March 17, 2017 at the age of 87 (Photo: BROOKS KRAFT/AFP/Getty Images).

Convicted murderer and former NFL player Aaron Hernandez was found dead on April 19, 2017 (Photo: Jim Rogash/Getty Images).

Seven-time Grammy winner Al Jarreau died on Feb. 12, 2017 at the age of 76 (Photo: Mauricio Santana/Getty Images).

Catcher All-Star catcher Darren Daulton died at 55 on Aug. 6, 2017. This photo was taken in 1995 (Photo: Stephen Dunn/Getty Images).

Actor Richard Hatch, star of the original &ldquo;Battlestar Galactica,&rdquo; died on Feb. 7, 2017 at the age of 71 (Photo: Scott Gries/Getty Images).

American Superbike rider and MotoGP world champion Nicky Hayden died on May 22, 2017 after a bicylce crash at the age of 35 (Photo: Julian Finney/Getty Images).

Joni Sledge of Sister Sledge died on March 10, 2017 at age 60 (Photo: Andreas Rentz/Getty Images).

Actor Nelsan Ellis, known for his role in HBO's 'True Blood,' died at 39 on July 8, 2017 (Photo: Michael Buckner/Getty Images).

Charles Manson, one of nation's most infamous mass killers, died at 83 on Nov. 19, 2017 (Photo: California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation via Getty Images).

Zombie movie maestro and 'Night of the Living Dead' writer/director George A. Romero died at age 77 on July 16, 2017 (Photo: Ethan Miller/Getty Images).

Jana Novotna, Wimbledon champion from the Czech Republic, died on Nov. 19, 2017 at the age of 49 (Photo: Mike Hewitt /Allsport/Getty Images).

Actor Richard Anderson, known for his roles in television's The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman in the 1970s, died at the age of 91 on Aug. 31, 2017 (Photo: Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images).

Distinguished British actor John Hurt, famous as the face of The Elephant Man and wandmaker Mr. Ollivander in the Harry Potter movies, died at 77 on Jan. 25, 2017. This photos is from 1966 (Photo: R. Powell/Express/Getty Images)

Guitarist Walter Becker of Steely Dan died at the age of 67 on Sept. 3, 2017 (Photo: Sean Gardner/Getty Images).

Country music singer Troy Gentry of Montgomery Gentry died in a helicopter crash on Sept. 8, 2017 at the age of 50 (Photo: Mike Windle/Getty Images for dcp).

Actor Harry Dean Stanton died at the age of 91 on Sept. 15, 2017. With a 60-year-long resume, Stanton appeared in more than 200 movies and TV shows including Repo Man, Godfather II, and Pretty in Pink. (Photo: Michael Buckner/Getty Images)

Don Baylor, former Major League Baseball MVP and Manager of Year, died at 68 on Aug. 7, 2017. In this photo, Baylor bats during a game in 1979 (Photo: Getty Images).

Bernie Casey, an accomplished actor, poet and NFL football player, died on Sept. 19, 2017 at the age of 78. He acted in dozens of films including &ldquo;Boxcar Bertha" and &ldquo;Never Say Never Again&rdquo; (Photo: Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images).

Swedish actor Michael Nyqvist, who played journalist Mikael Blomkvist in the original Girl with the Dragon Tattoo thrillers, died of lung cancer at 56 on June 27, 2017 (Photo by Joerg Koch/Getty Images).

Fresh Kid Ice, a founding member of the Miami hip hop group 2 Live Crew and born Chris Wong Won, died at 53 on July 13, 2017 (Photo: Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images)

Sam Shepard, Pulitzer-winning playwright and actor, died due to complications of Lou Gehrigs disease at the age of 73 on July 27, 2017 (Photo: Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images).

Erin Moran, known for playing Joanie Cunningham on the long-running comedy 'Happy Days,' died on April 22, 2017 at 56 (Photo: Kevin Winter/Getty Images).

Musician Chris Cornell, the frontman of bands Soundgarden and Audioslave, died suddenly on May 18, 2017 at the age of 62 (Photo: Buda Mendes/Getty Images).

Martin Landau, who won an Oscar for playing Bela Lugosi in Tim Burton's 1994 film Ed Wood, died on July 15, 2017 at 89 (Photo: Jason Merritt/Getty Images).

Malcolm Young, rhythm guitarist and co-founder of the rock group AC/DC died at the age of 64 on Nov. 18, 2017 (Photo: Newsmakers).

NASA astronaut Eugene Cernan, the last man to walk on the moon, died at the age of 82 on Jan. 16, 2017. This photo is from 1972 (Photo by NASA/Getty Images).

Hall of Fame quarterback Y.A. Tittle died at the age of 90 on Oct. 8, 2017 (Photo: Hulton Archive/Getty Images).

Baseball pitcher Roy Halladay died in a plane crash at the age of 40 on Nov. 7, 2017. He played 16 seasons and had eight All-Star Game selections (Photo: Marc Serota/Getty Images).

Emmy and Grammy-winning actor Robert Guillaume died at age 89 on Oct. 24, 2017. He starred in 'Soap,' 'Benson,' 'Lion King' and 'Sports Night' (Photo: Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images).

Rance Howard, whose acting career spanned more than 60 years in film and television, died at the age of 89 on Nov. 25, 2017 (Photo: Kevin Winter/Getty Images).

Rapper Lil Peep died at 21 on Nov. 15, 2017. His music amassed a cult following for melding hip hop and emo sounds. (Photo: Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images)

Soul singer Charles Bradley died at the age of 68 following a battle with cancer on Sept. 23, 2017. He released his debut album, 'No Time for Dreaming,' in 2011 (Photo: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for FYF).

Jake LaMotta, American professional boxer and former World Middleweight Champion, died on Sept. 19, 2017 at 95 years old (Photo: Keystone/Getty Images).

Actor John Heard, most known for his role as the dad in 'Home Alone,' died on July 21, 2017 at age 71. (Photo: Mark Mainz/Getty Images)

Comedian and actor Jay Thomas died at 69 on Aug. 24, 2017. He was best known for his roles on 'Cheers' and 'Murphy Brown' (Photo: Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)

Country music star Glen Cambell died at age 81 on Aug. 8, 2017. In this photo, he plays guitar for young fans in 1970 (Photo: Central Press/Hulton Archive/Getty Images).

Stand-up comedian Ralphie May died on Oct. 6, 2017 at the age of 45. (Photo: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)

01/69

David Cassidy, American pop singer and star of the television programme 'The Partridge Family', died at age 67 on Nov. 21, 2017. In this photo, he walks down a road in Paris in 1974 (Photo: Ellidge/Daily Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images).

02/69

Jim Nabors, who created one of TV's beloved comedic characters, Gomer Pyle, died at the age of 87 on Nov. 30, 2017 (Photo: Frank Micelotta/Getty Images).

03/69

Legendary American jazz pianist and singer Fats Domino (Antoine Domino) died at 89 on Oct. 24, 2017. He shaped rock and roll with songs like Blueberry Hill, The Fat Man, Ain't That a Shame and I'm Walkin' (Photo: Express Newspapers/Getty Images).

04/69

Hugh Hefner, the ultimate playboy and CEO of Playboy Enterprises, was 91 when he died at his home on Sept. 27, 2017. He published the first Playboy magazine in 1953 (Photo: HECTOR MATA/AFP/Getty Images).

05/69

Della Reese first enjoyed a career as a jazz and pop singer and later as a TV star on CBS' 'Touched by an Angel.' She died at age 86 on Nov. 19, 2017 (Photo: Amanda Edwards/Getty Images).

06/69

Dick Gregory, the comedian and activist who broke racial barriers in the 1960's and used his humor to spread messages of social justice and nutritional health, died at age 84 on Aug. 19, 2017 (Photo: Timothy Hiatt/Getty Images).

07/69

Mary Tyler Moore, one of the most beloved television actresses of the 20th century, died on Jan. 25, 2017 at the age of 80. She was most known for her role as a housewife on 'The Dick Van Dyke Show' (Photo: Kevin Winter/Getty Images).

08/69

Rock 'n' roll pioneer Chuck Berry died at the age of 90 on March 18, 2017. From the time Berry first hit the scene with Maybellene in 1955, he defined the sound, the swagger, the style of a rock and roll star (Photo: Francois Durand/Getty Images).

09/69

Comedian Don Rickles, known as the master of the put-down in his more than 60-year-long career, died at age 90 on April 6 (Photo: Mark Mainz/Getty Images for AFI).

10/69

Voice actress June Foray, the voice of Cindy Lou Who and Rocky the Flying Squirrel, died on July 26, 2017 at the age of 99 (Photo: Amanda Edwards/Getty Images for UCLA).

11/69

Allman Brothers singer and Southern rock icon Gregg Allman died at 69 years old on May 27, 2017 (Photo: Andrew H. Walker/Getty Images).

12/69

Jerry Lewis, the comedian and director whose fundraising telethons became as famous as his movies, died at age 91 on Aug. 20, 2017. (Photo: Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images)

13/69

Dick Enberg waves to the crowd during a ceremony held before a baseball game between the San Diego Padres and the Los Angeles Dodgers at PETCO Park on September 29, 2016 in San Diego, California.

14/69

Musician and rock and roll legend Tom Petty died on Oct. 2, 2017 at the age of 66 (Photo: Samir Hussein/Getty Images).

15/69

Comedian Charlie Murphy died of leukemia on April 12, 2017. He was the older brother of Eddie Murphy (Photo: HECTOR MATA/AFP/Getty Images).

16/69

Bill Paxton, an American actor and director known for his roles in 'Titanic' and TV's 'Training Day,' died at age 61 on Feb. 25, 2017 (Photo: Rachel Murray/Getty Images for Activision).

Actor Adam West, who originated the role of Batman through the 1960s TV series, died at age 88 on June 9, 2017 (Photo: Evening Standard/Getty Images).

19/69

NASA astronaut Dick Gordon (middle) died at age 88 on Nov. 6, 2017. He was the command module pilot of Apollo 12, the second lunar landing mission. This photo was taken in 1969. (Photo: NASA/AFP/Getty Images)

20/69

British actor Roger Moore, who played James Bond in seven films, died at 89 on May 23, 2017 (Photo: Peter Ruck/BIPs/Getty Images).

21/69

Former chairman and CEO of the Fox News Network Roger Ailes died at age 77 on May 18, 2017 (Photo: Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images).

22/69

Former 'Let's Make a Deal' gameshow host Monty Hall died of heart failure at 96 years old on Sept. 30, 2017 (Photo: Kevin Winter/ImageDirect).

23/69

Singer Chester Bennington, best known as the lead singer of rock band Linkin Park, died of suicide at age 41 on July 20, 2017 (Photo: Christopher Polk/Getty Images).

24/69

13th March 1974: American author William Peter Blatty, whose novel 'The Exorcist' was made into a highly successful film and wrote and directed 'The Ninth Configuration' died on Jan. 12, 2017 at 89 (Photo: Larry Ellis/Express/Getty Images).

25/69

Jonathan Demme, the versatile Oscar-winning filmmaker who worked with everyone from David Byrne and Justin Timberlake to Hannibal Lecter, died at age 73 on April 27, 2017 (Photo: Ernesto Ruscio/Getty Images).

26/69

Keely Smith, a Las Vegas legend and one of most popular singers in the era of Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack, died on Dec. 16, 2017 at 89 (Photo: Hulton Archive/Getty Images).

27/69

Country music star Mel Tillis died on Nov. 19, 2017 at the age of 85. Over the course of his six-decade career, he penned many now-classic country songs like 'Detroit City' (Photo: Frederick Breedon/Getty Images for ACM).

28/69

Columnist Liz Smith died on Nov. 12, 2017 at the age of 94. For more than a quarter-century, her column was one of the most widely read in the world (Photo: Michael Loccisano/Getty Images for HBO).

29/69

Kim Jong-Hyun, a 27-year-old lead singer of the massively popular K-pop boyband SHINee, died on Dec. 19, 2017 (Photo: CHOI HYUK/AFP/Getty Images).

30/69

John Warren Geils Jr., the artist known professionally as J. Geils who gave his name to the 1980s rock group he founded, The J. Geils Band, died on April 11, 2017 at 71 years old (Photo: Carl Lender/Wikipedia).

31/69

Clyde Stubblefield, a drummer for James Brown who created one of the most widely sampled drum breaks ever, died on Feb. 18, 2017. He was 73 (Photo: Phillip Faraone/Getty Images for Guitar Center).

32/69

Norma McCorvey, the plaintiff in the US Supreme Court Roe v. Wade ruling on abortion, died on Feb. 18, 2017 at the age of 69. This photo was taken in 1998 (Photo: CHRIS KLEPONIS/AFP/Getty Images).

33/69

Derek Walcott, a Nobel-prize winning poet known for capturing the essence of his native Caribbean who became the region's most internationally famous writer, died on March 17, 2017 at the age of 87 (Photo: BROOKS KRAFT/AFP/Getty Images).

34/69

Convicted murderer and former NFL player Aaron Hernandez was found dead on April 19, 2017 (Photo: Jim Rogash/Getty Images).

35/69

Seven-time Grammy winner Al Jarreau died on Feb. 12, 2017 at the age of 76 (Photo: Mauricio Santana/Getty Images).

36/69

Catcher All-Star catcher Darren Daulton died at 55 on Aug. 6, 2017. This photo was taken in 1995 (Photo: Stephen Dunn/Getty Images).

37/69

Actor Richard Hatch, star of the original &ldquo;Battlestar Galactica,&rdquo; died on Feb. 7, 2017 at the age of 71 (Photo: Scott Gries/Getty Images).

38/69

American Superbike rider and MotoGP world champion Nicky Hayden died on May 22, 2017 after a bicylce crash at the age of 35 (Photo: Julian Finney/Getty Images).

39/69

Joni Sledge of Sister Sledge died on March 10, 2017 at age 60 (Photo: Andreas Rentz/Getty Images).

40/69

Actor Nelsan Ellis, known for his role in HBO's 'True Blood,' died at 39 on July 8, 2017 (Photo: Michael Buckner/Getty Images).

41/69

Charles Manson, one of nation's most infamous mass killers, died at 83 on Nov. 19, 2017 (Photo: California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation via Getty Images).

42/69

Zombie movie maestro and 'Night of the Living Dead' writer/director George A. Romero died at age 77 on July 16, 2017 (Photo: Ethan Miller/Getty Images).

43/69

Jana Novotna, Wimbledon champion from the Czech Republic, died on Nov. 19, 2017 at the age of 49 (Photo: Mike Hewitt /Allsport/Getty Images).

44/69

Actor Richard Anderson, known for his roles in television's The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman in the 1970s, died at the age of 91 on Aug. 31, 2017 (Photo: Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images).

45/69

Distinguished British actor John Hurt, famous as the face of The Elephant Man and wandmaker Mr. Ollivander in the Harry Potter movies, died at 77 on Jan. 25, 2017. This photos is from 1966 (Photo: R. Powell/Express/Getty Images)

46/69

Guitarist Walter Becker of Steely Dan died at the age of 67 on Sept. 3, 2017 (Photo: Sean Gardner/Getty Images).

47/69

Country music singer Troy Gentry of Montgomery Gentry died in a helicopter crash on Sept. 8, 2017 at the age of 50 (Photo: Mike Windle/Getty Images for dcp).

48/69

Actor Harry Dean Stanton died at the age of 91 on Sept. 15, 2017. With a 60-year-long resume, Stanton appeared in more than 200 movies and TV shows including Repo Man, Godfather II, and Pretty in Pink. (Photo: Michael Buckner/Getty Images)

49/69

Don Baylor, former Major League Baseball MVP and Manager of Year, died at 68 on Aug. 7, 2017. In this photo, Baylor bats during a game in 1979 (Photo: Getty Images).

50/69

Bernie Casey, an accomplished actor, poet and NFL football player, died on Sept. 19, 2017 at the age of 78. He acted in dozens of films including &ldquo;Boxcar Bertha" and &ldquo;Never Say Never Again&rdquo; (Photo: Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images).

51/69

Swedish actor Michael Nyqvist, who played journalist Mikael Blomkvist in the original Girl with the Dragon Tattoo thrillers, died of lung cancer at 56 on June 27, 2017 (Photo by Joerg Koch/Getty Images).

52/69

Fresh Kid Ice, a founding member of the Miami hip hop group 2 Live Crew and born Chris Wong Won, died at 53 on July 13, 2017 (Photo: Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images)

53/69

Sam Shepard, Pulitzer-winning playwright and actor, died due to complications of Lou Gehrigs disease at the age of 73 on July 27, 2017 (Photo: Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images).

54/69

Erin Moran, known for playing Joanie Cunningham on the long-running comedy 'Happy Days,' died on April 22, 2017 at 56 (Photo: Kevin Winter/Getty Images).

55/69

Musician Chris Cornell, the frontman of bands Soundgarden and Audioslave, died suddenly on May 18, 2017 at the age of 62 (Photo: Buda Mendes/Getty Images).

56/69

Martin Landau, who won an Oscar for playing Bela Lugosi in Tim Burton's 1994 film Ed Wood, died on July 15, 2017 at 89 (Photo: Jason Merritt/Getty Images).

57/69

Malcolm Young, rhythm guitarist and co-founder of the rock group AC/DC died at the age of 64 on Nov. 18, 2017 (Photo: Newsmakers).

58/69

NASA astronaut Eugene Cernan, the last man to walk on the moon, died at the age of 82 on Jan. 16, 2017. This photo is from 1972 (Photo by NASA/Getty Images).

59/69

Hall of Fame quarterback Y.A. Tittle died at the age of 90 on Oct. 8, 2017 (Photo: Hulton Archive/Getty Images).

60/69

Baseball pitcher Roy Halladay died in a plane crash at the age of 40 on Nov. 7, 2017. He played 16 seasons and had eight All-Star Game selections (Photo: Marc Serota/Getty Images).

61/69

Emmy and Grammy-winning actor Robert Guillaume died at age 89 on Oct. 24, 2017. He starred in 'Soap,' 'Benson,' 'Lion King' and 'Sports Night' (Photo: Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images).

62/69

Rance Howard, whose acting career spanned more than 60 years in film and television, died at the age of 89 on Nov. 25, 2017 (Photo: Kevin Winter/Getty Images).

63/69

Rapper Lil Peep died at 21 on Nov. 15, 2017. His music amassed a cult following for melding hip hop and emo sounds. (Photo: Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images)

64/69

Soul singer Charles Bradley died at the age of 68 following a battle with cancer on Sept. 23, 2017. He released his debut album, 'No Time for Dreaming,' in 2011 (Photo: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for FYF).

65/69

Jake LaMotta, American professional boxer and former World Middleweight Champion, died on Sept. 19, 2017 at 95 years old (Photo: Keystone/Getty Images).

66/69

Actor John Heard, most known for his role as the dad in 'Home Alone,' died on July 21, 2017 at age 71. (Photo: Mark Mainz/Getty Images)

67/69

Comedian and actor Jay Thomas died at 69 on Aug. 24, 2017. He was best known for his roles on 'Cheers' and 'Murphy Brown' (Photo: Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)

68/69

Country music star Glen Cambell died at age 81 on Aug. 8, 2017. In this photo, he plays guitar for young fans in 1970 (Photo: Central Press/Hulton Archive/Getty Images).

69/69

Stand-up comedian Ralphie May died on Oct. 6, 2017 at the age of 45. (Photo: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)